The Woodstock Playhouse presented its full-scale production of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly with music by Lucia Hwong, for one weekend only at 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 18 and Saturday, November 19 with a Sunday, November 20 matinee at 2 p.m. at the Playhouse, 103 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock.
The cast featured David John Phillips as Rene Gallimard and Matthew Liu as Song Liling and included Kenny Andrew as Marc, Craig Cupone as Toulon, Shannon McDavid as Renee, Amy Pan as Comrade Chin, Myriam Phiro as Helga with Nick Baum and Loe Elvgren as the Kurogo.
Based on a true story that stunned the world, and inspired by Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini's opera, M. Butterfly was an immediate sensation when it premiered on Broadway in 1988. The play opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government - and by his own illusions. He recalls a time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive - and as elusive - as a butterfly. The diplomat relives the 20-year affair from the temptation to the seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both. M. Butterfly won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play.